Abstract.
The earth’s shallow layers, up to a depth of about 200 km, can have viscosities that are an order to several orders of magnitude lower than those of surrounding layers. These layers can induce high-harmonic (degree and order 50 – 150) gravity anomalies due to the ice and meltwater redistribution in the last glacial cycle. Uncertainties in ice-load histories will induce gravity and geoid anomaly differences in these high harmonics. The GOCE satellite mission is expected to be able to discern differences between various Late-Pleistocene ice-load histories and is also predicted to be sensitive enough to detect the effects of shallow low-viscosity crustal and asthenosphere zones. For example, our earth relaxation models indicate that GOCE should be sensitive to typical differences between ice-load histories up to harmonic degree 140 for a crustal low-viscosity zone and up to harmonic degree 70 for a low-viscosity zone in the asthenosphere. GRACE is mainly sensitive to differences for the latter. We show that for the limiting case of a lateral homogeneous earth, it is possible to constrain properties of crustal low-viscosity layers in the presence of uncertainties in the ice-load history.
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Schotman, H.H.A., Visser, P.N.A.M., Vermeersen, L.L.A. (2007). High-Harmonic Gravity Signatures Related to Post-Glacial Rebound. In: Tregoning, P., Rizos, C. (eds) Dynamic Planet. International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 130. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-49350-1_18
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